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Edoardo Molinari on why the European Ryder Cup side has been more successful than the U.S. on the road

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Winning a Ryder Cup on the road is one of the most difficult tasks in all of professional sports. The last time it happened was in 2012 at Medinah which was famously dubbed “The Miracle at Medinah” because the European team had to make an amazing comeback to win.

Overall, since 1979, Europe has won four times away on foreign soil (1987, 1995, 2004 and 2012), and the United States has won twice away on foreign soil (in 1981 and 1993).

While speaking with GolfWRX, Edoardo Molinari, who was a vice captain for the European team in Rome last fall, explained why he believes the Europeans have been better on the road than the United States teams.

“Good question. I think it’s a combination of different reasons. I think one, we are more used to travel a lot, like as a European tour player, you go to South Africa, you go to Australia, you go to China, like half of our season is away from Europe, and even when it’s in Europe it’s like a different country. So, you’re not playing in your home country the whole time.”

“So, when it comes to going to the U.S., it’s actually better than a lot of other countries that, that you go to and it’s not a hurdle in itself that we need to overcome.”

“And then I think the other part is like… it’s been talked about a lot but the team chemistry, how much everyone really likes each other and try to help each other. I mean, it’s amazing like some of the stories from the Ryder Cup week you always hear of guys like Rory going to Nicolai (Hojgaard) to Bob (MacIntyre).”

“I mean, literally Rory treating Nicolai and Bob who [he must have seen] four or five times in his life before Ryder Cup week, and all of a sudden in the practice trip that we went to two weeks before he was [treating] Nicolai like his younger brother and Bob like his best friend.

“It really makes you think about how much Rory and John and, and those guys, they really care about Ryder Cup, they really try to, you know, try to help the younger guys and all of a sudden that elevates the whole team. I think especially when you go away, that’s massive.

“That’s, that’s very, very important because all of a sudden you might be a rookie playing in front of an away crowd. Your first Ryder Cup, it’s a very uncomfortable situation. But if you have someone like Rory or Jon saying, ‘I’ve been here before, this is going to be fine, you’re good enough’ and, and they actually behave during the week and during the weeks before in a way to make you feel part of a family. All of a sudden, I think it’s it really uplifts all the younger kids and if you play as a team, with everyone together, you can achieve some amazing things.”

Luke Donald announced in January that Molinari would once again be one of his Vice captains as the European team heads to a hostile New York environment at Bethpage Black in 2025.

Check out the full conversation with Molinari below. 

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‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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